2019-02-05T00:39:55ZWhy do some illiberal democracies fall into conflict while others do not? Evaluating formal and informal mechanisms of distribution through elite bargaininghttp://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/17242
Title: Why do some illiberal democracies fall into conflict while others do not? Evaluating formal and informal mechanisms of distribution through elite bargaining
Authors: Rodríguez, Liliana Narváez
Abstract: Civil conflict is a complex multi-layered event. As an outcome it represents a product of both the structural framework in place and decision-making between the different elite groups. From a historical neoinstitutionalist perspective, this dissertation will provide an answer as to why some illiberal democracies fall into civil conflict while others do not. It argues that horizontally unequal elites bargain for (re)distribution of political participation, economic assets and social services through formal and informal institutions in order to expand the shares of the goods distributed. The presence of cleavages and grievances amongst groups are enhanced when exclusion through inefficient redistribution takes place; therefore, a bargain failure with the potential to activate violent means, implies a disagreement amongst the elites over the allocation of resources to different societal groups. Bargain failures occur in the presence of non-credible commitments and information asymmetries. Inefficiency in the distribution can also be captured through informal institutions in the form of patronage networks, a side of the transaction spectrum which has been understudied. The contribution of this thesis to the general debate stems from this acknowledgement and alleviates this by incorporating the full spectrum of institutions which operate effectively within illiberal democratic regimes. Patronage networks despite being a fundamental part of how politics is conducted in illiberal democratic regimes have surprisingly been neglected in the contemporary study of conflict onset. By conducting two-level fsQCA along a selection of 21 cases of illiberal democracy across 1980-2012 including cases of ethnic conflict onset, the analysis will show that distribution through patronage networks does play a role in triggering conflict or in aiding to control violence depending on the efficiency of the distribution across grieved groups. Further comparative analysis of a most likely and least likely case for cases of conflict (Thailand and India Bodo conflict) and peace (Namibia and Bolivia) reveals that the effect of the patronage mechanisms when redistributive, plays a larger role as an instrument of preventing violent disputes across horizontally unequal ethnic groups.
Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London2018-01-01T00:00:00ZCombating the trafficking of women in the United Arab Emirates: a critical analysis of the United Arab Emirates legal response in the context of international lawhttp://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/17141
Title: Combating the trafficking of women in the United Arab Emirates: a critical analysis of the United Arab Emirates legal response in the context of international law
Authors: Albannai, Humaid Ali Mohammad
Abstract: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a key destination and transit country for human trafficking. Human trafficking is a complex international criminal enterprise that supplies humans for many different forms of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation. It has devastating effects on its victims. Theories suggest that human trafficking is strongly linked to migration, which would explain why it has become an urgent issue for the UAE, since its massive influx of migrants seeking a better life and economic circumstances, are habitually lured to the UAE and subjected to exploitation by traffickers. It is a situation that in recent years has tarnished the UAE’s reputation to the international community and its wealthy investors. It is for all of these reasons that this thesis is concerned with human trafficking in the UAE, with a special focus on the trafficking of women, as well as the legal mechanisms and initiatives created to combat this scourge. At the heart of this investigation is Federal Law No. 51 which marked a pivotal moment for the UAE, as it was a law specifically designed to address trafficking on its territory. However, as with laws drafted by the international community, there exist difficulties with how trafficking should be construed, and with how traffickers and trafficked victims should be treated in order to effectively eliminate this crime. Ultimately, the research highlights the importance and benefits of a victim-centred human rights based approach, as opposed to the pervasive crime control one, which includes ensuring that victims are genuinely protected and fully rehabilitated to re-enter society. In addition, the research provides crucial insights from Islamic law and principles that raise significant implications for understanding how the trafficking in women should be conceptualised and dealt with in modern-day Muslim societies such as the UAE.
Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London2018-01-01T00:00:00ZInternational commercial arbitration: A single supranational systemhttp://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/17102
Title: International commercial arbitration: A single supranational system
Authors: Abasheikh, Omar Said Imam
Abstract: This dissertation examines International Commercial Arbitration as it appears to have reached a
turning point. Through the lens of institutional entrepreneurship opportunity and institutional
change theory, the dissertation seeks to determine whether transforming arbitration from an
unregulated process to a regulated system would enhance the practice. This question is vital at
the present time as arbitration is blemished by increasing cost and time of arbitration
proceedings, intervention by national courts in the arbitral process, diminishing party autonomy,
and loss of privacy and confidentiality of the proceedings as shown by data from surveys
conducted in the last decade or so, and also due to the potential threat posed by the growth of
mediation and also litigation in specialist commercial courts. Commentary frequently highlights
these issues, but many commentators seldom propose solutions because practitioners benefit
from the institution’s current chaotic arrangements where they could increase their fees and
extend the proceedings for their financial gain. The dissertation shows that international
commercial arbitration is a semi-institutionalised institution and would probably benefit from
introduction of the regulative institutional pillar to make it fully institutionalised. An appeal
procedure, a mechanism to make the process cost-effective, expeditious, and to reduce
intervention by national courts in arbitration proceedings so that arbitrants can maintain
privacy and confidentiality of their disputes appears desirable. It recommends establishment of a
single supranational regulatory organisation called the ‘International Centre for Arbitration of
Commercial Disputes’ (ICACD) to function as a bureaucratic structure in order to respond to the
changing needs of the community and to enhance the institution’s status and its functionality,
such as to establish the ‘International Arbitration Awards Review Council’ (IAARC).
Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London2018-01-01T00:00:00ZThe impact and challenges of Basel III implementation in Saudi Arabiahttp://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/17040
Title: The impact and challenges of Basel III implementation in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Almuqati, Mohammed Marzouq
Abstract: This thesis is devoted to examining the legal framework for, and efficacy of, the implementation of the Basel III framework that governs capital, liquidity and market disclosure standards. It is set against the backdrop of the 2007 to 2008 financial crisis and attempts to unpack the myriad challenges associated with current efforts to harmonise international risk regulation standards in the context of legal diversity. These challenges are sharply illustrated in the context of Saudi Arabia’s Islamic legal system and its uneasy relationship with the government’s ongoing attempts to subject Saudi banks to the Basel III authored market and risk regulation disciplines. Paralleling the growth of Islamic (equity driven) finance markets worldwide, Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia now compete in the global market for conventional (debt centred) banking products. The growth of, and demand for, conventional financial services in Saudi Arabia highlights the duality of the Saudi legal system and its banking sector, despite apparent divergences between conventional and Islamic finance models, legally and normatively. These divergences manifest themselves, both in the differential treatment of Islamic and conventional banking customs and norms in the context of the overall Saudi legal system, and in respect of the general suitability of the conventional basis of the Basel regulatory model as applied to Islamic finance contexts and instruments. The thesis will challenge the convention that Islamic financial practices are self-evidently less risk averse, or more ethical, than their conventional alternatives. In a second step, this thesis will consider whether the national implementation of Basel III standards provides Saudi banks with sufficient protection against future threats to the stability of the country’s Saudi market-economy in periods of economic volatility. These aims will be synthesised to provide an overarching analysis of the ‘gaps’ in Saudi banking institutions and applicable law. Comparing the Saudi banking regime with the dual banking sector in Malaysia, this thesis will conclude with a defence of strengthened corporate governance regulation, transparency and ‘rule of law’ reforms in Saudi Arabia’s legal system. These recommendations should be further accompanied by concrete efforts to formulate, and, more effectively, reconcile, local and Islamic disclosure and accountability related standards with Basel III-approved technical measures on risk-mitigation and measurement.
Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London2018-01-01T00:00:00Z